Aikor Karanka feels joining Middlesbrough was the best decision of his life.
After spending three years as an assistant to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, the former centre-back took up the head coach role at Boro in 2013.
Karanka's team suffered defeat in the 2014-15 Championship play-off final but secured automatic promotion to the Premier League in the following campaign.
"Coming here is the best decision I ever made in my life," said Karanka in an interview with El Pais.
"On a personal level, it was a matter of improving myself. I came from a tough Championship and reached the Premier League.
"It's been a tough journey on a personal level and I feel back to being myself, because I could make the decisions that I thought appropriate at all times.
"For me it is an honour to be with Pep [Guardiola], [Jurgen] Klopp, Mou [Jose Mourinho], [Mauricio] Pochettino, [Antonio] Conte … it's a privilege.
"If you told me five years ago I would be a coach in the Premier League I would not have believed it."
"Mou is something else, but not everything is Mou. But he is the most important [influence] because it coincided with the time that I saw I definitely wanted to do this," added Karanka.
"You learn from everyone. My father was a coach and I have been fortunate enough to play under Heynckes, Del Bosque, [Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto] Valverde.
"And I played with great players at Madrid and Athletic with whom we spent hours talking about this."
